I wonder how they would score on an IQ test?


FWIW, FYI.....

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Subject: News: Chimps top humans in memory task

Public release date: 3-Dec-2007


YOUNG CHIMPS TOP ADULT HUMANS IN NUMERICAL MEMORY

Young chimpanzees have an ~Sextraordinary~T ability to remember numerals
that is superior to that of human adults, researchers report in the December
4th issue of Current Biology, a publication of Cell Press.

~SThere are still many people, including many biologists, who believe that
humans are superior to chimpanzees in all cognitive functions,~T said
Tetsuro Matsuzawa of Kyoto University. ~SNo one can imagine that
chimpanzees~Wyoung chimpanzees at the age of five~Whave a better performance
in a memory task than humans. Here we show for the first time that young
chimpanzees have an extraordinary working memory capability for numerical
recollection~Wbetter than that of human adults tested in the same apparatus,
following the same procedure.~T

Chimpanzee memory has been extensively studied, the researchers said. The
general assumption is that, as with many other cognitive functions, it is
inferior to that of humans. However, some data have suggested that, in some
circumstances, chimpanzee memory may indeed be superior to human memory.

In the current study, the researchers tested three pairs of mother and
infant chimpanzees (all of which had already learned the ascending order of
Arabic numerals from 1 to 9) against university students in a memory task of
numerals. One of the mothers, named Ai, was the first chimpanzee who learned
to use Arabic numerals to label sets of real-life objects with the
appropriate number.

In the new test, the chimps or humans were briefly presented with various
numerals from 1 to 9 on a touch-screen monitor. Those numbers were then
replaced with blank squares, and the test subject had to remember which
numeral appeared in which location and touch the squares in the appropriate
order.

The young chimpanzees could grasp many numerals at a glance, with no change
in performance as the hold duration~Wthe amount of time that the numbers
remained on the screen~Wwas varied, the researchers found. In general, the
performance of the three young chimpanzees was better than that of their
mothers. Likewise, adult humans were slower than all of the three young
chimpanzees in their response. For human subjects, they showed that the
percentage of correct trials also declined as a function of the hold
duration~Wthe shorter the duration became, the worse their accuracy was.

Matsuzawa said the chimps~R memory ability is reminiscent of ~Seidetic
imagery,~T a special ability to retain a detailed and accurate image of a
complex scene or pattern. Such a ~Sphotographic memory~T is known to be
present in some normal human children, and then the ability declines with
the age, he added.

The researchers said they believe that the young chimps~R newfound ability
to top humans in the numerical memory task is ~Sjust a part of the very
flexible intelligence of young chimpanzees.~T

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